Backup StrategyWow! Wasn’t that fiasco with American Airlines flights in mid-April amazing? Thousands of flights were canceled so that their MD-80 airplanes could be safety inspected. I hope you weren’t caught up in that mess.

Turns out American wasn’t the only airline affected. Others also impacted include Alaska, Allegiant Air, Delta and Midwest Airlines, because they also use MD-80s, just not as many as American, who have 300 in their fleet. Also, you may not realize that it was primarily a domestic problem because most airlines don’t use the older MD-80s, but younger airplanes, for their international flights.

During the midst of the upheaval, I heard an interesting piece of advice on the radio. George Hobika, who writes a blog on airfarewatchdog.com, a site that tracks low airfares, suggested that if you absolutely must get to your destination  a wedding or funeral, perhaps, or an important business meeting or cruise  you should consider buying two tickets. Yes, two. One at the lowest, non-refundable fare you can get, and a second, refundable ticket  on a separate airline, but with the same flight times. If the flight on your less expensive, non-refundable ticket gets canceled, you can use the other ticket. If the cheaper one flies, you can get a refund for your ‘back-up,” refundable ticket. Yes, there may be a fee involved, but just how important is it to get to that once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) wedding, anyway, or how much money will you lose if you don’t get to that important business meeting? Want to take a chance on missing your cruise departure? It’s your call. As Mr. Hobika pointed out, these are perilous times, in a whole new travel world.

What if the airline for which you have a ticket goes bankrupt, an ever-increasing possibility these days as one airline after another falls by the wayside? Remember, thanks to the Federal Fair Credit Billing Act, if you purchase your ticket with your credit card, and you don’t receive the product, you should get a refund. So if your airline goes bankrupt and stops flying before your trip, you can request a credit from your credit card company.